MTK BUDAPEST (Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium)

NEMZETI BAJNOKSÁG I, MTK BUDAPEST 1-2 BUDAPEST HONVÉD, ATTENDANCE: 2,706

After days of travelling, admiring the sights of Vienna and Bratislava, I finally arrived in Budapest for the weekend, so naturally a nearby game simply had to be found!

I plumped for the local derby between MTK and Honved at the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium, was officially opened in December 2016. The new ground is built on the site of the Hungária Körúti Stadion, which was completely demolished in 2014.

The original ground was inaugurated in 1947 and was famously used in the 1980 cult film "Escape to Victory" when the likes of Pele, Michael Caine, Bobby Moore and Sylvester Stallone played on the hallowed turf. Indeed pictures of Pele at the old ground were flashed up on the big screen before the game, in a montage of images from the past.

Nándor Hidegkuti was a famous player for MTK and Hungary. He scored a hat-trick at Wembley in 1953 as the 'Magical Magyars' thrashed England 6-3 in a game which changed the face of football in the English game forever.

The new ground has a capacity of just over 5,000 and is two sided. The seats are the ones of varying shades to create the illusion that the ground is full. However, apart from when Ferenvarcos come to visit, this is always unlikely to be the case.

All the fans, including the away fans who are caged into two blocks, are on one side of the ground and the curved roofing creates the impression of being in an indoor arena. It is a straightforward ride from the city centre on metro line 3, alighting at Népliget, then an easy 20 minute walk (or 5 minute tram ride) from there.

As this was a local derby, I had to obtain a fancard, which was easily done at a cost of 500 Forints. I went to a ticket office based in the city centre and they sorted out both fancard and match ticket (a total cost of around £8). I was extremely lucky (ahem) to find a craft beer bar contained within the same building. Well it would have been rude not to!

Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest, to give the club their full name, were formed in 1888 and are one of the most successful clubs in Hungarian Football. They have won the championship on no less than 23 occasions, but the last of these came in 2008 and since then the club has fallen down the pecking order, even being relegated for the first time in 2011.

The club bounced back at the first attempt but have finished no higher than third in the league. MTK played Europa league football in 2015 and 2016 but failed to get past the qualifying rounds.

The game was played at a decent tempo but it was Honved who had the majority of possession in the opening period. They had the best of the few chances created. Honved eventually made the breakthrough in the 49th minute when Davide Lanzafame turned the ball home from inside the six yard box.

However instead of pushing on, Honved allowed MTK back into the game and they were awarded a penalty in the 61st minutes, Sándor Torghelle dispatching the spot kick. Torghelle's joy didn't last long as he was shown a straight red card for a foul five minutes later.

To their credit MTK didn't sit back and kept going forward. The game was ebbing and flowing when in the 78th minute Honved were also awarded a spot kick, for something spotted by the goaline official, and Marton Eppel stepped up to score what proved to be the winning goal.